The family of Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich accepts Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll’s apology, but hoped for more:

“We asked for an apology and that’s what we got,” said Rhonda Goodrich, Joseph Goodrich’s sister-in-law, who has been speaking on behalf of the family. She said the apology was accepted, although the family had also wanted Knoll to apologize to the Marine Corps.

“Probably, in all honesty, she didn’t even know she was acting inappropriately, she’s so out there,” said Goodrich, of Indiana. “The business card, I will always believe, was handed out as campaign fodder.”

Knoll said in her letter that she arrived too late to offer her personal condolences. That rankled Rhonda Goodrich, who said she believed Knoll came to get publicity.

“She didn’t have time to be with Amy or Joe’s parents, but she made time for the TV cameras,” she said. “That’s where I’m still a little bitter.” Goodrich said Knoll remarked to Joseph Goodrich’s aunt that “our government” was opposed to the war.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which broke the story, runs this telling photo this morning of Knoll hogging the TV camera during SSGT Goodrich’s funeral:

Credit: Annie O’Neill, Post-Gazette

WaPo/AP story here. The Philly Inquirer adds this:

Knoll’s spokesman, Sean Pendrak, would not say whether Knoll is reconsidering her policy of attending funerals without an invitation.

Clueless.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review blasts both Knoll and Gov. Ed Rendell, who remarked that “It’s not the business of state government to support the war.”

[That] would be news to those federal agencies, D.C. politicos and nongovernmental organizations to which the state has been whining about potential military base closings in Pennsylvania, citing the war effort and national security.

Apologies were the order of the day Monday. But the damage was done and the egg on the face is thick. The best public service Knoll could perform would be to not seek re-election. As for Rendell, he could use a class in thinking before speaking.

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